“Thanks, Sheriff.” David closed the front door of the sheriff’s office and stepped out onto the wooden sidewalk. He took his watch out of his pocket and opened the cover. There was plenty of time to meet the doc at the funeral parlor before he joined Tessa and Coalie at the mercantile. David wanted a last look at Arnie Mason’s corpse. Something about it nagged at his brain, tugged at his consciousness, just out of reach. It was a shame Dr. McMurphy was visiting his sister-in-law in Virginia. David trusted Kevin McMurphy’s expertise and his sound judgment. David only hoped Doc Turner knew half as much.
Inhaling deeply, David closed the watch, dropped it back into his waistcoat pocket, then raised his arms above his head, stretching the aches out of his large body. He was over six feet tall and he’d spent far too many hours hunched over a desk. He turned to his right and caught a glimpse of green out of the corner of his eye. Tessa and Coalie were sitting quietly on a wooden bench outside the sheriff’s office.
Lowering his arms, David approached them. “Finished so soon?” he asked.
Tessa didn’t look up, and Coalie merely shrugged in greeting.
“I thought you’d have a dozen or so packages for me to carry,” David teased. “Or…oh, no, don’t tell me. You’re having a wagon deliver the supplies.”
“Not exactly.” Tessa’s voice had an edge to it.
A quiver of alarm shot up David’s spine. “Tessa? Is something wrong?”
“Not anymore,” she answered brightly.
“You did go to Jeffers’s Mercantile?”
“We went,” Tessa replied, “but we didn’t find anything we really needed. Or wanted.” Still she didn’t look up to meet his gaze.
“At Jeffers’s Mercantile? You’ve got to be kidding. They carry everything that anyone could possibly need.”
“Not for me.”
“What about flour, sugar, and tea?” David studied Tessa. “You did get that, didn’t you? Coalie?” David glanced at the boy squirming on the wooden bench.
“Tell him.” Coalie nudged Tessa in the arm.
“What is it?” The quiver of alarm grew into something more. A heavy feeling settled in David’s chest.
“The ladies at the mercantile are probably still in shock because Coalie and I dared to darken the door of a reputable establishment.” The angry words burst from Tessa’s lips. “That woman wouldn’t put our purchases on your account, nor would she take our money. It wasn’t good enough for her. She says it’s dirty…just like us.” Tessa’s small frame quivered with anger.
“Lorna said that?” David couldn’t believe his ears.
“No,” Tessa told him. “Not Lorna. The other one. Mrs. Jeffers. She called us riffraff and ordered us to leave her store, as if we weren’t good enough to shop there.” She raised her chin a notch higher.
David bent down in front of her. He touched Tessa’s chin with one finger, lowering the angle a bit so he could see the militant expression masking the vulnerability in her eyes.
“What did you say?” he asked Tessa.
“I told Mrs. Jeffers I didn’t want to shop at her mercantile. I had money enough to order my supplies from Chicago…”
“Chicago?” David interrupted. “Couldn’t you think of someplace closer?”
“I was angry,” Tessa told him.
“I can tell.” David found it hard to keep a straight face. He’d have paid money to see Tessa face off with Margaret Jeffers.
“Do you want to know what happened or not?” Tessa demanded.
“I wouldn’t miss this retelling for anything.”
Tessa eyed him suspiciously. “Then quit interrupting.”
“I’m sorry.” David almost laughed, but quickly coughed to cover it up. “Please continue.”
She repeated the confrontation almost word for word, then ended her recitation with a flourish. “I told her we could order supplies from Chicago, then I told her that the Satin Slipper catered to a better class of people than the ones in her store. And then, I dropped a dollar on the floor in front of her and left.” Tessa glared at David, waiting for his reaction.
She didn’t have to wait long. One corner of his mouth turned up in a smile before he burst into laughter.